Mass graves of executed communists from the Civil War discovered in northern Greece

By Nikos Mottas

Two mass graves containing the remains of executed communists from the 1946-49 Civil War have been discovered in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city.

The graves were uncovered during redevelopment work close to the national resistance memorial, thus increasing the total of such sites in the area to six. The location of the graves indicates that it was likely used for the execution of political prisoners due to its proximity to the notorious Yedi Kule prison.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas — The struggle against “green” and “digital” capitalist barbarism

On Sunday 28 November, the European Communist Initiative held a teleconference titled "The communists at the forefront of the workers’–people’s struggle against “green” and “digital” capitalist barbarism, for the contemporary popular needs, for the real way out, socialism". 

Below you can read the introductory speech delivered by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas:

Museum in honor of communist guerrillas unveiled in Greece

“The KKE is the power of the people today, because it doesn't enter the fold of the false 'national arrangements', it does not obey the hostile for the people bourgeois plans”, pointed out Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during his speech in the northern Greek town of Nestorio on Sunday morning.

The speech was given on the occasion of the inauguration of a Museum-Memorial for  the communist guerrilla fighters of EAM-ELAS and the Democratic Army (DSE), who fought against the Axis occupation and during the Greek Civil War respectively. The Museum was a donation by Harisis Tsoutounis who provided a space “in memory of his militant parents”, as well as to “honor the struggle of EAM-ELAS and DSE, to which the people of the area contributed significantly”.

The legalization of the KKE in 1974

By Nikos Mottas.

It was on 23 September 1974 when the Greek government of “national unity”, under Konstantine Karamanlis, was publicly announcing the legalization of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) after 27 years. Alongside with the legislative decree, the government was repealing the infamous Law 509/1947 which was a source of persecutions, exiles, tortures and executions of thousands of communists during the post-war years. 

On 25 September 1974 the front page of “Rizospastis”, the official organ of the KKE, was dominated by the Greeting Message of the Central Committee to the working class, the peasantry, the whole people. Here is a significant excerpt of the message:

McCarthyism is back: Communist Party members from any country are ineligible to immigrate to the U.S.

Senator Joseph McCarthy died in 1957 but the specter of anti-communism has always been alive in U.S. politics. Communist Party members, from any foreign country, are ineligible to immigrate to the United States since the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. 

In a policy alert announcement issued on October 2nd, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated the guidance under which members of a Communist Party are ineligible to immigrate to the country. 

The guidance reads: